There’s really no aspect of modern working and career life that hasn’t been fundamentally changed by the tech revolution of the last 20 years. Real estate is certainly no exception, and real estate agents in Canada have had to be receptive to these changes if they’ve wanted to continue to have every advantage possible in furthering their business interests. Now we’re not talking about owning a smartphone or having a real estate website. That kind of stuff is completely obligatory if you’re going to be in the business and connected / visible 24/7 – which IS a must, but you won’t need to be told that. Nearly one and all who work in real estate, or have in the past are going to agree that one of the biggest and most completely false misconceptions about real estate is that it’s a way to get rich quickly if you’re willing to put in the time. Not only does pretty much NO ONE get rich quickly, but even if you put in every bit of time you have you’re not going to see much for it unless you’re being VERY smart with that available time. Technology is a part of that, and here at Real Estate leads our online real estate lead generation system is a good example of how you can invest in your success with smart technologies.
So in support of this belief that all realtors should try to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to technology, here are 5 real estate tech trends that are perfectly simple to get on board with.
Note that we’re not going to talk about the tech itself, but rather the overarching trends that many new technologies work for. If you need to dig up specific product references, we’ll go ahead and assume you know how to use Google search!
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Automate Time-Consuming Tasks
Time is a precious commodity for any busy working professional, and if that doesn’t describe you as a real estate agent then you’re likely too far behind the 8-ball anyways. Successful realtors work hard, but they also work smart. It’s perfectly natural for a realtor to struggle with keeping leads organized or remembering to follow up with a potential client.
The good news here is that there are amazing real estate tech tools available now that can help you automate a good portion of your workflow and free up your time to use elsewhere. Most of these are in the form of apps that can downloaded right on your phone. If it takes you time to get used to operating them, make time for that.
Look into your own workflow and decide where you can automate certain parts of the process to free up your time to actually get more face-to-face with clients. Then research what tech tools, apps and services can help you be a smarter-working realtor with more time and resources at his or her disposal by automating tasks wherever possible.
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Increasing Your Efficiency
A 25-hour or longer day doesn’t exist, so all realtors have the same amount of time in day, unless they choose not to sleep (which we suppose is possible, but really NOT recommended). When it comes to client leads, would a potential one be aware that the reason you didn’t call them back for 15 hours after they expressed interest was because you were going through your emails one after another while manually inputting contact information into a spreadsheet.
Nope, they wouldn’t be aware at all and they’d like quickly come to see you as not the right realtor for them. It’s true that top agents nearly always respond to leads quickly because they’re able to do sow and not bogged down and preoccupied with handful after handful of ‘clerical’ tasks. They’re able to make positive first impression on clients with speedy responses and being entirely present in person or on the phone because they’ve got that side of their business running efficiently.
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Deliver Better Service
Some professions are fairly straightforward, but real estate isn’t one of them. There’s the sales element, the marketing element, and – last but certainly not least – the customer service element. There are many realtors that do really well with the first two parts of that equation, but much less well with the customer service end of it. In those situations you can be darn sure their business is going to suffer for it.
There are many different real estate agent apps and other technologies that can help you up your game in this area, and personalization is a game changer in the real estate industry and for marketing in general. There is plenty of tech that lets you serve your clients in a much more personal way
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Embrace Cloud Computing for your Data
The cloud has been a real blessing no matter what business you’re in. The ability to not have to rely on your own physical storage and then also being able to access that storage much more freely is a huge benefit to realtors. Even if it’s as simple as getting your own Dropbox or Google Drive and then granting file access to clients or other realtors as needed.
Long story short is that agents need tools to get their jobs done. Having your lead generation engine, contact database, MLS, website, document management, workflow automation, email platform and more operating from the cloud (and enjoying the regular, automated file backups that come with it) will save you a lot of time as a realtor and the value of freeing up time like this is quite considerable
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Enhanced Mobility
Most realtors would be thrilled to learn that their new leads were going to be tracked and routed through their workflow, with minimal input required from them. What about adding a note to a contact record in your CRM with just your voice and smartphone, or searching properties within your MLS and then texting them to your client.
All is possible with modern technology. Making it so that you are able to access contacts, property information and tools from wherever you are is very advantageous, and some realtors will also travel with a tablet rather than a smartphone for better ease of operation and a larger display. You can tether the tablet to your smartphone if you need to connect to the Internet and there’s no public Wi-Fi available.
Technology tends to be all pervasive when it has the potential for making work life better for people, so if you’re a realtor today all you really need to do is being 100% receptive to it and you too will almost certainly be running your business better and having more time to use efficiently as a result of it.
Sign up for Real Estate Leads here and receive a monthly quota of qualified, online-generated buyer and / or seller leads that are delivered to you – and only you – for your similarly exclusively-served region of any city or town in Canada. You will be the only realtor assigned to that area, and for as long as you remain with us you’ll be the only one to receive real estate leads for that area. Please read our testimonials to see how other realtors like you have enjoyed a real boost to their client prospecting efforts by using real estate leads.
